Finding Adds To Theory That Cell Phones Pose Risk

Scientists have found breaks in the brain cell DNA of animals exposed to low-level microwave radiation - adding weight to the theory that cellular telephones might pose a health risk.

Two new studies, done independently in different parts of the world, both showeda consequence that can lead to cancer if the body is unable to repair the damage.

"This really is the first serious piece of biological data to come along since [the safety issue) hit the front pages two years ago, and it is not at all reassuring," said Louis Slesin, a scientist and publisher of Microwave News, an industry newsletter. "It needs to be followed up and it needs to be followed up soon."

But the cellular phone industry, which has pledged up to $25 million for research, is not impressed and is in no hurry to see the work expanded or replicated.

"It's not very relevant because they didn't use the cellular frequency or cellular power," said Ron Nessen, vice president for public affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington, D.C.

Nessen also said the method used to assay the DNA breaks in one of the studies may not be scientifically valid.

The design of hand-held cellular phones puts the user's brain only a few centimeters from an antenna that acts as a mini-transmitter. The antenna sends radio signals up to 10 miles away to receiving stations that transfer the signal to regular phone lines. Some of that signal is absorbed by the user's head.

Several pending lawsuits claim that the signal from the phones triggered or accelerated the growth of brain tumors in people who used their phones frequently.

The industry denies the possibility of a health risk but at the same time has pledged millions to study the issue. The industry did not pay for the work that found the DNA damage.

DNA, found in the chromosomes of cells, is the body's basic genetic code allowing the chromosomes to be copied exactly when cells divide.

Dr. Henry Lai and Dr. Narendra Singh, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, were looking for neurological effects in the brains of live rats exposed to the low-level microwave radiation, and were surprised when they found an increased number of single-strand DNA breaks in the animals' brain cells, Lai said.

He said that it is too early to draw conclusions from the study.

"The data are very preliminary. We have not done all we'd like to do," Lai said.

But when Lai and Singh submitted a proposal asking for $240,000 from the $25 million fund set up by the cellular telephone industry to continue the work, they were stalled, Lai said.

After being told last month that a decision was not expected soon, they withdrew their application and decided to look for money elsewhere.

Lai and Singh plan to submit a proposal to the National Institutes of Health instead. Their preliminary findings have been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Bioelectromagnetics early next year.

The other study, reported earlier this year in the journal Mutation Research, found the DNA in the brains and testes of mice had been "rearranged" after exposures at the same frequency used by the Seattle researchers - 2450 megahertz.

Lead researcher Soma Sarkar, of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences in New Delhi, India, said that science should reevaluate whether microwave radiation can cause mutagenic effects.

Quirino Balzano, vice president of Motorola Inc. based in Plantation, one of the country's top experts in cellular phone research, said the Lai-Singh findings are "puzzling" and "it is unwise to come to conclusions based on unreplicated studies."

He said he found "even greater problems with the whole Sarkar paper. Frankly, I don't know how a paper with such poor controls even got published."

Dr. George Carlo, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group on Cellular Telephone Research, the group set up to oversee the industry-financed research, said there are serious problems with both studies.

He said he has asked the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis for guidance on whether the studies should be replicated.

The method used by Lai and Singh to assay the DNA breaks has not been used before, Carlo said, and before the study could be done again, the method would have to be tested by other laboratories around the world - a process that could take up to a year.

He said he expects the Harvard group to concur that there should be a delay and that he had relayed that information to Lai and Singh before they withdrew their proposal.

"I would rather be right than fast," Carlo said of the critics who claim the industry is dragging its feet.

But Slesin says the industry is keeping scientists "on too tight a leash. It seems to me they want everything exactly right before they proceed, when the most exciting results usually come from happenstance, from the unexpected places."

By 2000, 100 million people worldwide will be using cellular communications devices, according to industry estimates.

"The exposure numbers are so large, you've got to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. If only one-tenth of 1 percent of the users are affected, that's 100,000 people," Slesin said.

"Obviously this is a huge industry and it's not going to go away, but it may have to redesign the phones. It may be that you can't have a wonderful little flip phone in your pocket," he said, "but God didn't promise us that."